In an Oct. 9 Edmonton Journal opinion piece, Ken Kobly, president of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, warns that “Community benefit agreements may not work for Albertans.”

Kobly’s warning follows Premier Rachel Notley’s announcement at the Building Trades of Alberta 2018 conference that the Alberta government is going to proceed with a pilot community benefit agreement as a test case. His alarm is based on his understanding of what is happening in British Columbia. For anyone interested in the B.C. situation, I strongly recommend fact-checking Kobly’s claims against the information readily available on the B.C. government website.

As far as the situation in Alberta goes, Kobly admits that the Alberta government has said the Alberta community benefit agreements will look nothing like B.C.’s and that the government intends to pilot a small project first to make sure they get community benefit agreements right.

What is the situation in Alberta?

Most people would agree that current tendering processes for major public infrastructure projects are not delivering the value Albertans deserve. Too often, short-term savings are valued over quality work on public infrastructure projects that are intended to last for decades.

Projects can be better co-ordinated with the province’s economic, environmental, regional, and social policies and programs. Contractors hire outside labour in preference to qualified Alberta workers or training new workers, even though Alberta is facing an imminent shortage of skilled trades workers and has underemployed populations, like Indigenous people and women, who are ready, willing, and able to work.

Why does the Building Trades of Alberta think community benefit agreements can deliver better value to Albertans?

As we’ve pointed out in a series of blogs on our website, community benefit agreements can be a win-win for developers, small businesses, local communities, workers, the provincial government itself, and, yes, trade unions.

Community benefit agreements have been successfully used in several jurisdictions in Canada and the United States for major public infrastructure projects, ranging from B.C. hydro dams to the Los Angeles International Airport. Best practices are well-known.

Community benefit agreements can include requirements for wages and hiring, including local hiring and hiring of disadvantaged groups in the labour market. They can include provisions for hiring apprentices and sub-contracting to local businesses as well as requirements for environmental impacts and monitoring.

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Community benefit agreements are legally enforceable contracts. They provide governments with an important new mechanism to ensure regulatory requirements are met on projects like the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

That’s radical stuff only because it will make sure infrastructure projects are done right for current and future generations, keep jobs in Alberta, train the next generation of skilled trades workers, and benefit local businesses and communities. Those goals seem to be ones that the Chambers of Commerce should wholeheartedly support.

They are also the goals the Building Trades of Alberta is proud to have supported for many years by providing:

– Best-trained workers in the industry;

– Unequalled skills training and training facilities;

– Apprenticeships and scholarships for students;

– The best safety record in the industry;

– Good, middle-class wages that help to raise community standards of living;

The Building Trades of Alberta has been actively supporting community benefit agreements for some time. We are the skilled-trades advantage and we think community benefit agreements can work for all Albertans.